Children need greater involvement in disaster risk reduction

ISTANBUL, Turkey, 1 March 2013 – This week governments,
experts and child rights advocates across Central Asia and the South Caucasus
highlighted the importance of engaging children and schools to help communities
reduce disaster risk.

Participants exchanged knowledge in
disaster risk reduction with a particular focus on the education sector during
the meeting. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan presented experiences under the UNICEF Disaster
Risk Reduction programme, funded by the DIPECHO (Disaster Preparedness ECHO)
project under the European Union (European Commission's Humanitarian aid and
Civil Protection Directorate General (ECHO). Croatia also described how they
set up and manage their National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The two regions have been experiencing
increased exposure and vulnerability to extreme cold weather, heat waves,
floods, land- and mudslides, avalanches, forest fires and earthquakes in the
past few years. Earthquakes are the most dangerous of all hazards, killing and
injuring children, destroying schools and other infrastructure, and impeding
access to education. Moreover, such disasters set back hard won development
gains.

In Turkey, progress has been made in
integrating disaster risk reduction into national education policies,
programmes and curriculum, thereby allowing children to learn about hazards and
simple measures such as dock, cover and hold in the event of an earthquake. Resource
materials, including training manuals, teaching methodologies, and teaching
materials were presented and seen in practice during the visit to Hasdal
Primary school.

Kyrgyzstan`s Ministry of Education presented
the ongoing nationwide school safety assessment based on the methodology initially
developed by UNICEF as part of its DIPECHO-funded programme in 2010-2011. The
Government has made resources available for this exercise and commits to
establish clear roles for mitigating the impact of the possible disasters on
schools through risk reduction measures, such as retrofitting school building
and establishing school disaster management teams.

Georgia and Kazakhstan also presented a review
of their policy changes, resulting in better preparedness to respond to
disasters at the school and community level. Turkmenistan, which joined the UNICEF
DIPECHO-funded project in 2012, is revising the national education curricula
with clear disaster risk reduction elements being integrated with the support
of UNICEF.

Examples of working with children
with special needs in Armenia showed that children can be involved as active
agents of change in their communities. Save the Children’s focus in Armenia has
been exclusively on all special schools and special institutions as a group that
has not been addressed previously in disaster risk reduction.

These gatherings taking place biannually
since 2011 have been effective in promoting country-to-country learning and
leveraging national efforts in risk reduction within the region. ‘This event
has been a truly unique opportunity to come together as a region to exchange
knowledge and experience for building a safer future for children in South
Caucasus and Central Asia’ said Ms. Ketevan Lomsadze, Programme Officer, ECHO
Georgia.

Innovative approaches to promote child participation, such as school based
hazard mapping, are encouraged so that children are not seen as helpless
victims but as active participants in making communities safer and resilient.